Josh Donaldson’s Spring Training Home Runs Are the Stuff of Legend

Josh Donaldson has a simple solution for speeding up the game of baseball; when you hit a home run, just stroll into the dugout. Do not round the bases, just walk right back to the bench.

The Blue Jays’ all-world third baseman is still making the rounds in minor league games as he rehabs his calf, but early on, he’s showing no signs of ill effects from his injury.

Not surprisingly, Donaldson went yard in his very first rehab game on Thursday. But then Donaldson went deep in his second consecutive game on Friday.

Due to the nature of his injury and it being minor league Spring Training games, things are a little more laxed and Josh Donaldson doesn’t have to run the bases – which makes it even cooler that he hit his home runs and then strolled straight into the dugout.

The second-hand account from JT Maguire paints the picture. This description from the game would’ve been plenty to paint the picture …

https://twitter.com/JT_Maguire35/status/842549451029921793

But then, we got the accompanying video of said home run. By now, you’ve probably already seen this video of Josh Donaldson teeing off on a Phillies minor leaguer (courtesy of @StoolFrederic).

Josh Donaldson hitting bombs in minor league spring training games and not running the bases is awesome. So Show pic.twitter.com/wA4lkGmcBC

But have you seen the second home run from Friday where he did the exact same thing? A monster shot to left field followed by a casual stroll back to the dugout and a high five with Blue Jays farmhand, David Harris. (Video from MLB Prospect Portal)

Donaldson took some undue heat from a few people on Twitter, whom he promptly corrected. Without context, it may look like Donaldson’s hot-dogging it out there, but he’s still rehabbing and hasn’t started running the bases.

Plus, why circle the base paths when you can just b-line it for the dugout? The latter looks so much cooler, anyway.

You can tell Donaldson crushed these pitches by the sound of the ball off of the bat. These kinds of home runs are the stuff of legend. If not for the videos, we’d never get to see Donaldson strut towards the dugout after cranking one over the fence.

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.